


Roses and Ravens

by paranomastic



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 02:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5726527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranomastic/pseuds/paranomastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU as heck. Taiyang Xiao Long went on one of his first real away missions in years, and did not come back. Summer Rose dragged their missing teammate home to help with the kids. Somehow they fell back in love and managed to raise two alright kids.</p>
<p>Or: How Raven Branwen stopped being quite so cool (and didn't mind that much).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1. How it Starts

The club, like the growing trend of these establishments in Vale, thrummed with energy and flashed with obnoxious lights and music. Why had the client requested to meet her here of all places? It was so loud, in every sense of the word, and crowded to boot. So, naturally, she had avoided the front entrance and elected instead to enter via a window up near the roof and make her way down directly to the VIP area. If anyone was good at being quiet and discrete, even in a place where that seemed genuinely heretical, it was her.

The guy guarding the door never stood a chance of seeing her, not that she suspected he would argue if he saw. People in his position had a long history of not being paid enough to deal with women like her. So into the VIP section she passed, leaving the flashing bright white on silver of the dancefloor behind for the velvet-muffled glow of the long hallway lined with doors to the private rooms. No windows into them, no sound allowed to project out. Fantastic for any kind of meeting that required discretion and secrecy – and no meeting in the last several years of her life had needed anything less.

Room 13 came up quickly on the right, a door just like any of the others in the hallway. The client had not given any personal details, other than they intended to come alone and would explain all the details of the job when they met. Raven briefly wondered what the client would be like – rich, probably, and young given the insistence on secrecy. Maybe their first time hiring someone for a job like this. How cute.

She expected a lot of things when she opened the door to Room 13. She did not expect what was actually behind it.

“Raven.”

The voice was soft, nowhere near the harsh range of tones she had become used to hearing her name spoken in. It was quiet, and it was light, and more than anything it was a voice Raven _knew_.

“Summer?”

It had been... how long had it been since Raven had run off from the other members of Team STRQ? Years at least. She had never intended to see Summer or Taiyang or Qrow ever again unless something went horribly, horribly wrong.

… had something gone horribly, horribly wrong? No, there was something more pressing.

“How did you find me?

Summer was seated patiently in a chair on the other side of a metal table, wrapped up in her cloak as she always had been, looking of course not a day older than she had when Raven had left. She did not even stand, just watched Raven across the room with a smile. “I'm a Huntress, Raven. Tracking things is one of the job requirements.”

“And I know how not to be tracked.” A smirk found itself playing across Raven's lips as she moved to sit at the table across from her old team leader, “But I get the feeling you don't want to tell me.”

Summer shrugged, “Guess I just know you.”

“Sure, we'll go with that.” Raven cocked an eyebrow, “Why did you go to the trouble of tracking me down?”

Just like that the joviality left and Summer's smile faded, eyes moving down to focus on the table. Maybe something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. “Taiyang's... he's...”

Raven felt her teeth bite together harder of their own accord in her mouth, “He's what?”

It had been years since Raven had seen Summer's eyes, and just as long since she had seen the way they softened as Summer approached tears. She could count on one hand the number of times Summer had cried in the time she had known her. One more finger raised now. “He's dead, Raven. He was on a mission and... and he died.”

Blood ran cold under Raven's skin. Dead? Taiyang was... no, there was no way. “How did it happen?”

“There were just too many Grimm, it sounds like.” Summer looked away, reaching up to try to wipe the tears from her eyes, “But he's gone and he's not coming back.”

Raven took a moment to steady herself, “And how's...”

“Yang? She's... she'll make it. Ruby's a little young to really get it, but I think taking care of her is helping Yang deal with things.”

“Ruby?” Raven asked.

“Taiyang and I had her after you... left us.”

A long few moments of silence passed between them while the news digested, Raven chewing slightly on her tongue. She had not expected news like this to sting so much, certainly not after all these years. And yet... well, she had loved him. In the same way she had loved Summer. It really was unfair, having to go through the pain of leaving them and now the loss of someone she had chosen to never see again still stinging like a Nevermore talon to the gut. And unlike a Nevermore, Raven could not behead bad news.

“And how are you?” The question just sort of happened without her thinking about it, but she was concerned. Summer had always been strong – there was a reason why she was the leader after all, and Raven shuddered to think how Taiyang might have reacted if she were the one who had died – but this was not exactly the kind of thing Beacon trained them for.

Summer chewed on her lip for a moment, “I'm... I'll live.”

“Summer...” Raven frowned, unsure what exactly the physical comfort limits were for 'ex-girlfreind mourning dead shared boyfriend.'

“Raven.” Summer looked up and swallowed, “I really did ask you here because I have a job for you.”

Well that came straight from left field. “Oh?”

Eye contact did not drop once as Summer continued, “Look... I know what you and me and Taiyang had is over. And I know you're out here fighting your own battles. I'm not asking for you back for me, I just... I can't do this alone, Raven.” The tears had returned to Summer's eyes, “Even if it's just for Yang, even if it's just for a few weeks until things settle down, _please_.”

Raven sat stock still in her chair. This conversation had certainly taken a few turns fast. “And here most reunions at least go for a 'how have you been' before getting into multi-year commitments.”

“You know me.”

“And you know me. I didn't have time to raise a kid years ago, and I don't have time now.” She could have helped Summer with _any other damn thing_ , too, but...

The other woman's countenance grew calm, perfectly still. “And you know that you've never been able to outrun me without a head start.”

Her team leader's determination was still strong as ever, it seemed. Still, Raven thought, it was pointless. “Do you really have the time right now?”

Summer smirked, “Qrow can always take care of Yang.”

Now that was just uncalled-for. “No.” There were more reasons than she could count on her fingers why she had left her daughter with Taiyang and not Qrow. “I'll... when's the funeral? I'll come to that. Maybe say hi to the kids. But that's it, Summer.”

“More than I thought I would get out of you, really.” Summer sighed, and smiled in that infuriatingly endearing sheepish way, “Now... are you too angry with me to have a drink before we go?”

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Taiyang Xiao Long's memorial was set up near a river, in a quiet place fortified from any meandering the water decided to do in the near future. His diploma and a few medals were placed in a box and lowered into the ground before being buried. It rained the day they did it, and a wide assortment of Huntsmen and Huntresses who had known him showed up. Summer Rose, Ruby Rose, and Yang Xiao Long stood and watched the dirt get filled in. Raven Branwen materialized in the back about halfway through the service.

“I didn't believe her when she said you agreed to show.” Her brother, not _completely_ reeking of booze on that particular day, suddenly stood beside her.

“What can I say, buy a girl a drink and even someone like me can be moved.”

“You planning to talk to the kids or keep the mysterious act going and vanish before Summer can try to get you to settle down with her again?”

“Don't know yet.”

“Look, I know commitment isn't exactly your favorite thing in the world, but... Summer misses you. Hell, I even kinda miss having you around sometimes, even if you can be one pain in the ass of a little sister...”

“By ten minutes.”

“Hey, ten minutes might as well be ten years in our line of work.” Qrow shrugged, “But that's not the point here. I think you should try it. Even if it's just part-time. You can afford to take your crusade against the darkness a little slower.”

“I don't want-”

“This isn't about what we want or don't want anymore, Raven. Taiyang's dead, and I know you didn't mean for Summer to raise those kids by herself. Not with her, you know-”

“I know, Qrow.” The ceremony was wrapping up now, the crowd near standing, “But they could do a damn sight better than me to play second parent.”

“Then why did she go to the trouble of tracking you down to ask?”

Raven paused in thought for a few long moments. Then, finally: “Tell Summer to bring the kids out fifty paces into the woods once everything's done. I'll talk to her, but I'm not about to stand around Taiyang's funeral making small talk.”

A smirk formed at the edges of Qrow's mouth, “Done and done.”

An hour of time to stand in the woods and reflect followed, which Raven had to admit was not the ideal sort of thing right then. Spending the next several years living with Summer and raising a couple of kids? She had to admit, there was some part of her that wanted to say yes, if just for the stability of it. But there were bigger concerns that Raven faced, concerns that both required her attention and were dangerous to keep in reach of small children. But of course, on the other hand she could not count how many times Summer's leadership had saved Team STRQ, how many times over she would have been impaled or decapitated or on one notable occasion thrown off the roof of Beacon without her. Of course there was the fact that they had been in love, too, the three of them inseparable. Down to two now, she supposed. And that love was surely by now long gone.

What was she going to say when Summer arrived? And more importantly, what the hell had possessed her to ask Qrow to tell her to bring the kids to watch her say it?

“Raven.” Summer's voice was even, and the kids held onto each of her hands, Yang on the right and Ruby on the left. They both looked so much like...

“Summer.” She looked from child to child. “Ruby, Yang.”

“Hello.” Ruby said automatically.

Yang seemed in too much shock to really say anything. Maybe she had made a good guess.

“I have two conditions.”

Summer's eyebrow raised, “Oh?”

“I can come and go freely.”

“I need a time limit before you come back, Raven.”

“Six months.”

“Two months.”

“Four.”

“Three with exceptions for emergencies.”

“Done. And-”

“Mommy, who is she?” Ruby interrupted, under the distinctly childlike impression that now was the perfect time to ask.

“This is Raven, dear. She's Uncle Qrow's sister.”

“Uncle Qrow doesn't have a sister.”

Raven came dangerously close to a “ha” of laughter. “I'm the reason why he's your uncle.”

“Huh?”

Yang's eyes only grew wider, and Raven could only bear to meet them with a small smile and an implied _“We'll talk alone later.”_ Or at least she hoped it was implied well enough for her to pick up on. She was bound to be a smart kid, it was in at least half of her genes.

“And she might be living with us for a little while.” Summer looked back over, “Anyway, what's your other condition?”

“I don't cook.”

Summer giggled, then snorted, “And I thought you'd ask for something hard to do.” She let go of Ruby and Yang's hands to step forward and offer to shake Raven's, “So do we have a deal?”

Raven smiled, one of the few real smiles that had hit her face since long before this whole affair started, and took Summer's hand in her own. It was just as she remembered it being the last time she had held it. “I never could say no to you.”

“I get that a lot.” One shake, two shakes. “Welcome to the family, Raven.”

And there it was. She had the conditions she wanted set in place, and now all that was left was to explain to these kids who the heck this new second mom was. Easy enough.

Three weeks later, when Raven found herself in an apron with a burnt attempt at what had tried to be a meal carefully submerged in the sink and her phone out to order pizza, she wondered just how long it would be before she started breaking the other condition, too.


	2. The first night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleeping can be hard for anyone, sometimes.

The first night, Raven laid down to attempt sleep on the couch in the living room. It was a move borne half from necessity, given that she could hardly stay in Summer's bed, and half from a long-standing vow to never again share a room with Qrow. And because Qrow was Qrow, he had already crash-landed directly into the guest room bed by the time Raven had to think about where to set up camp.

It was not quite as luxurious as a mattress, but in the last few years Raven could count on both hands the number of nights she had spent in better accommodations since striking out on her own. And yet it was still nearly impossible to get to sleep, at least at first.

Why was she here? Why had she agreed to- no, of course there were reasons why. There had to be. She owed Summer a lot, and had for years now. Summer Rose had believed in her, had given her some of the best years of her life when they were at Beacon together. Team STRQ had been the first time Raven felt like she had family beyond Qrow. And for a while that had been enough for her, pinned down the wanderlust. Going on missions, laughing about professors, waking up every morning to the smell of the same godawful cheap shampoo Summer insisted on using because it was the brand she had used since she was a kid, one of Taiyang's arms slung around her shoulders and all of her curled around Summer. It all kept playing back in her mind, and had since she met Summer again in that club.

Raven had forgotten what started the fight. Probably something small, it was the kind of fight that starts small and drags small things in until they have all become massive in rolling downhill. But by the end of it Raven was gone. The pregnancy had complicated things, but she had left the kid with the more responsible people in her life and moved on. She wanted that to be it. The end of them. One daughter she could watch from afar if she really needed to, and that was all to remind anyone of her. She took after her father much more than her, Raven always thought.

Qrow was the only one she had not been able to bear leaving completely, and there were obviously more reasons why she had left, but-

“Miss Raven?”

Not even twelve hours and a toddler had managed to sneak up on her. There was not having your head in the game, and then there was this. Raven rolled around away from the back of the couch to look the girl over. It was the other one, the one Summer and Taiyang had had without her. Yang had been avoiding her since they got to the house – Raven suspected that conversation would happen soon, when she was ready.

“Pretty sure bedtime was a while ago.”

“I know.” Ruby looked down. Wrapped in her red blanket like she was, it was painfully easy to see how much she had taken after her mother, in the same way that so little of Raven had found its way into Yang, “But I can't sleep, and mommy's crying, and Yang's asleep, and so I thought maybe you could read me a story?”

“A... story?” Raven slowly shifted into a sitting position, “Look, I don't know if I'm the one you want to-”

“Please?”

Fifteen minutes later, Ruby had been tucked neatly to sleep on the couch, wrapped tight in some red blanket she had dragged out from her bed (the story could not be told in her and Yang's room, naturally, with Yang so soundly asleep), and Raven closed and tucked away a collection of fairy tales she had found near the fireplace.

“Goodnight, Ruby.” she whispered, heaving herself up from the chair and wandering off down the hallway towards the bedrooms. A moment of hesitation at the door to the kids' room, sure, but mostly she made her way directly to Summer's room.

It was the parent-iest room, Raven was pretty sure, that she had ever seen. Lots of family photos, big bed with room for two and whichever kids failed to sleep, the whole nine yards. On the edge of that bed, face buried solidly in her hands, was Summer Rose.

One more finger raised.

“Summer.” Raven fought hard to keep emotion out of her voice, knowing full well how little she had ever been capable of the right things to say at times like this. Comforting the grieving was Qrow's specialty, in his own strange way. But right here, right now, Raven knew she had to say _something_.

There was no answer, at least not for a few moments. Then Summer finally raised her eyes, silver ringed by bloodshot and wetness, and just looked at her. Looked with pain, and longing, and love, and all the emotions Raven was so sorry for her part in ever inspiring.

Even Raven expected her own reaction to be what it always was. To run away, and to avoid. She was here to help a couple of kids not die, which was distinctly within her wheelhouse as a Huntress. The memories of things like being in love, or comforting the injured, or even simply working together with others had seemed so far away before that day. She was sure that Summer expected her to do the same, in the same way anyone would have expected her to say no to Ruby earlier.

So when instead she found herself walking to the bed and taking both a seat and one of Summer's hands, Raven did not blame Summer for looking shocked. Then Summer had nearly collapsed into her chest, and Raven had put her arms around her, and...

“We missed you, Raven. We missed you so much.” Summer's voice was small and quiet, muffled further by her position, “Even if I had just gotten to see you one more time, that would have been enough, but... I'm so glad you stayed. He would be too.”

Raven said nothing for a long few moments – what was there she could say? Even if she were good at this part, even if she had not spent the last few years as far from emotional attachments or people as she possibly could, what would there be to say? She had always hoped Summer would be angrier at her, she supposed, that she and Taiyang would resent her leaving them. More and more she was finding that they never had, and it almost hurt.

When she did reply, Raven spoke with a mass of emotion stuck in her chest and several different ones here and there in her voice, “I'm sorry.” Then, after a pause, “You know something?”

“What?”

Raven smiled, just slightly, down at her, “You still use the same shampoo.”

They spent hours after that talking – about Taiyang, about the kids, about missions as Huntresses, about any number of things in the years they had missed and only begun to catch up on that night they were reunited. Until eventually Raven woke, the morning sun filtering through the windows, tucked into bed with Summer in her arms.

It felt, terrifyingly, like home.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to be sort of... a series of short stories set in this AU? That I will update sometimes, if irregularly? Everyone is going to be so headcanony and I'm not even sorry.


End file.
